John and others, thank you for posting all this great information which was quite useful to me for my upgrade. Prior to my upgrade, the line was neatly run through bulls-eyes on the inboard side of the bullwarks...but it had it's issues so I decided on an upgrade. Here is my installation using a combination of the Schaefer stanchion blocks and a Harken furler lead-in AirBlock.

The Schaefer stanchion block....Nice solid construction.

To secure it to the Stanchion, line up the hole in the sheave with the hex bolt and do not over tighten. It doesn't take much to solidly secure it in place.

I'm going to try them up high (7" above the caprail) for now because I want them clearly out of the way of the amid-ship cleats, chocks and headsail travelers but I will likely lower them a bit later.

Harken lead-in furler AirBlock for the pulpit.

I'll remove the old bulls-eyes and fill the holes when I get better weather.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

Just curious, but why run the line so high. If you ran it lower, it would put less stress on the stanchions.

SD, I have actually lowered it a couple of inches since that photo and the lead-in block is now mounted tightly against the pulpit base, so its much better and still clears the chocks nicely. I'm aware of the extra stress but I want it completely clear of my chocks and I want the line to run parallel to the lower lifeline for aesthetic purposes and as you can see the distance from the pulpit base on the caprail to lower lifeline gives me very up/down movement to have it parallel to the lifeline.

SD, I have actually lowered it a couple of inches since that photo and the lead-in block is now mounted tightly against the pulpit base, so its much better and still clears the chocks nicely. I'm aware of the extra stress but I want it completely clear of my chocks and I want the line to run parallel to the lower lifeline for aesthetic purposes and as you can see the distance from the pulpit base on the caprail to lower lifeline gives me very up/down movement to have it parallel to the lifeline.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Telstar 28
New England

You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.

—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)

If you're new to the Sailnet Forums... please read this To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts..

I understand that there two types of furling systems, one is just for headsail storage, the other is for reducing sail area while sailing. Which one is the storage type, and which one is the one that can be sailed on with a partially exposed sail?

I have a santana 525. I am looking into a furling system for it. Any suggestions?

I understand that there two types of furling systems, one is just for headsail storage, the other is for reducing sail area while sailing. Which one is the storage type, and which one is the one that can be sailed on with a partially exposed sail?

I have a santana 525. I am looking into a furling system for it. Any suggestions?

Pretty well all the mainstream furlers are designed to reef as well (Harken, Furlex, Schaeffer, Profurl etc).

Some of the small boat designs like the smallest Cruising Designs and any zipper-luff jibs that are on furlers that are an integral part of the forestay generally are for furling/storage only.

Reefable systems require that the furler be able to handle significant torque loads. This requires a ridgid tube or extrusion. If there is just a luff wire or PVC extrusion then reefing is not possible, or a bad idea, because the extrusion will get permanently twisted. Furling also works best on relatively flat sails, and usually when furling say 30% of the sail. Beyond that most furling sails develop a bag shape that doesn't provide much in the way of drive.

Guys, i appreciate your input. My boat currently has a pvc type of housing on the forestay. It looks as though the head sail just slides onto the moulded track. I guess the sail has a rope type luff maybe. The pvc moukding had a couple breaks in it. So i am thinking that it may be shot. Now might be a good time to goto a furling system. You guys have any ball park ideas of cost for one?

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.